BOSTON — This is the sort of start where pitchers like David Price are supposed to take command.

An ace in name only through the early stages of his tenure in Boston, Price fully lived up to the billing Sunday to finish off a day-night doubleheader at Fenway Park with a 3-0 Red Sox win.

Tasked with salvaging a split of a four-game series that featured more than 15 hours of baseball, Price continued an upward trend that began after his last start against the New York Yankees. Price was brilliant through eight innings to earn his fifth win on a perfect summer night a few hours after the Sox and Rick Porcello fell by the same score to Yankees earlier in the day.

Price’s outing against the Yankees on June 8 was in line with his previous five starts against them in a Red Sox uniform. His 8.32 earned-run average and more than 14 hits allowed per nine innings included all the damage in a 6-1 loss. Boston was just 2-4 in those games, forced to pile up a combined 14 runs in the two victories.

That’s what made Sunday night’s effort all the more welcome. Price showed great life on all of his pitches from the opening inning — five of his eight strikeouts came on his fastball, all pitches of 94 mph or more. Price also flashed a sharp cutter and occasional curveball to power through New York’s lineup with relative ease.

"I felt good in the bullpen," Price said. "I felt good warming up. It was probably in the first inning."

Boston’s first runs in 24 innings came courtesy of the man who had scored the last — Mookie Betts. He crushed a hanging slider from Masahiro Tanaka over everything in left to make it 2-0 in the third, as the 36,719 patrons on hand let out what felt like a collective sigh of relief. Christian Vazquez strolled in from first base, his one-out single to center the first ball hit out of the infield by the Red Sox in the nightcap.

Price seemed to have matters well in hand by the time Dustin Pedroia’s RBI single through the left side in the sixth made it 3-0. He departed after throwing 75 of his 107 pitches for strikes, scattering seven hits and issuing no walks.

A sensational leaping catch by Jackie Bradley Jr. in the eighth denied New York’s best bid to break up the shutout, as he took a two-run homer away from Aaron Judge in the triangle out by the Boston bullpen.

"It was a special performance by a guy who’s worked really hard," Bradley said. "We’re definitely glad to get this win tonight."

CC Sabathia and three relievers extended the Red Sox misery at the plate in a 3-0 shutout in the opener, combining on a four-hitter that included an 0-for-11 blanking with runners in scoring position. Boston dipped to just 4-for-57 over an eight-game span dating back to July 5 in Tampa, losing six times.

“We’re in a little bit of a dry spell,” Boston manager John Farrell said. “That, I think, is pretty apparent.”

The Red Sox stranded Betts 90 feet away in the first, had Sam Travis cut down at the plate in the second and left runners at the corners in the fifth.

Bradley completed a hat trick of strikeouts by fanning against Chad Green with two on in the eighth, the fifth time Boston has been shut out with Porcello on the mound this season.

“They scored 15 runs a game for me last year,” Porcello said. “It is what it is. It’s baseball. It’s part of the game.”

Xander Bogaerts booted a one-out bouncer in the fourth by Clint Frazier, one that gifted the Yankees an extra out and led to a sacrifice fly to left by Ji-Man Choi and an RBI single to center by Ronald Torreyes. Didi Gregorius smashed a solo homer to right in the fifth, the only earned run charged to Porcello despite surrendering nine hits through six innings.

“I was pretty frustrated with that,” Porcello said of the hanging two-strike slider to Torreyes. “And then the changeup to Didi was a terrible pitch.”